2015 – Sheffield

The consultant neuroradiologists in Sheffield, led by Drs Nigel Hoggard and Charles Romanowski, organized the BSNR annual scientific meeting in 2015. This was held in the City Hall, in the centre of Sheffield. Melita Williams at Bespoke Northern Ireland was the conference organizer who did an excellent job of organizing the meeting. Just over 100 neuroradiologists from all over the UK and Europe attended the meeting, of which, 31 were trainees in neuroradiology.

On the Thursday before the start of scientific meeting many of the trainees attended a successful teaching day organized by Dr Tim Hodgson, at Halifax Hall on the University of Sheffield campus. This was the first of its kind but will hopefully be repeated on a regular basis at future BSNR meetings. Dr Hodgson has provided a separate report for this teaching day.

The scientific meeting began on the Friday morning with a session on paediatric accidental and non-accidental injury. Speakers for this session included radiological views Drs Stavros Stivaros (Manchester), Alan Sprigg (Sheffield) and Tim Jaspan (Nottingham) as well as an enlightening talk from Mrs Angela Georgiou, a barrister from Manchester.

The morning continued with an excellent lecture on spinal implants by Dr Luc van den Hauwe from Antwerp, Belgium.

The morning concluded with the Professor Isherwood Prize Presentation, awarded to Dr Michael Paddock from Sheffield.

Following lunch there was a mini symposium on dementia imaging with lectures from Dr Kirsty Harkness (consultant neurologist, Sheffield), Professors Alison Murray (Aberdeen) and Joanna Wardlaw (Edinburgh) and Dr Simon Hughes (Nottingham). This symposium has been described as one of best ever sessions organized at a BSNR meeting in the recent past. It is hoped that the discussions following on from this session will lead to the development of guidelines for clinical dementia imaging supported by the BSNR. Scientific papers followed this session.

Friday evening concluded with dinner at the Sheffield Town Hall. Guests were given a Yorkshire welcome by music from the Stannington Brass Band.

The meeting continued on the Saturday morning with a vascular and interventional session with talks from Professor Phil White (Newcastle), Dr Markus Holtmannspotter (Copenhagen, Denmark) and Dr Gabor Nagy (Budapest, Hungary). Professor Paul Griffiths (Sheffield) spoke about the potential impact of the MERIDIAN study on the antenatal imaging in the UK.

One of the major highlights of the meeting was the James Bull Lecture. Professor Tony Ryan, professor of physical chemistry at the University of Sheffield, gave this entertaining and enlightening lecture. He spoke about the physical possibilities and difficulties associate with introducing nano-technology into the body. Dr Chris Rowland Hill, the BSNR President, awarded the James Bull Medal to Professor Ryan.

Various scientific sessions were interspersed throughout the day. The meeting then closed with the Annual General Meeting of the BSNR.

The Burrows prize was won by Dr Gemma Dawe for her presentation entitled “SWI identifies brain micro haemorrhages in asymptomatic patients with immune thrombocytopaenia purpura” and the Poster Prize by Dr V Sawlani for the poster entitled “Multimodal MRI for differentiating between true progression and pseudo-progression in patients with glioblastoma.”

The President’s Medal was awarded to Dr Anil Gholkar.

Delegates and their guests then prepared for the BSNR dinner on the Saturday evening. Coaches took delegates to Chatsworth House in Derbyshire, the home of the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire. Guests were welcomed in the Painted Hall with a champagne reception and then guided through the house to the gallery. Guests were then taken to the Stables where an excellent dinner was served.

The meeting was supported by sponsorship from many of the major companies closely linked to neuroradiology. New companies, not traditionally associated with the BSNR were represented in Sheffield. The amount of sponsorship given to the Sheffield meeting by all of these companies was the most generous for many years. The charity Cavernoma Alliance UK also attended the meeting.